As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
So we are on the verge of the window opening once again for the new season and I've been trying to avoid commenting on transfers thus far (why do it to yourself?) but temptation has got the better of me
tomorrow is the day the lord Wenker has the opportunity to right 8 years of wrongs and bullshit and put his money where his mouth is,i wont hold my breath
Last edited by markyp on Sun Jun 30, 2013 4:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Wengerball wrote:So we are on the verge of the window opening once again for the new season and I've been trying to avoid commenting on transfers thus far (why do it to yourself?) but temptation has got the better of me
northbank123 wrote:
As I'm sure has been said somewhere on this thread in the absence of any tangible progression on a deal that looked very likely 7-10 days ago it's not unreasonable to look at the way we've conducted negotiations with clubs in the past; and it's no secret that our negotiations have often been protracted as we haggle to an unnecessary and often unrealistic degree on the fee.
Or do you need a credible source like goal.com, caughtoffside or "some bloke off Twitter" for it to be a credible suggestion?
It doesn't always come down it being about haggling over fees though. You can't assume that just because a transfer seems protracted that it must be because we're trying to lowball the selling club. There are recent examples of when we wrapped up deals swiftly too, like Podolski and Giroud last summer. The Cazorla deal took a bit longer but we still nabbed him. It seems to me that people are too scarred by the Mata failure and that is causing them to feel negatively about any transfer for a top player that seems to be dragging out. But it's not like we always lose out at the final hurdle on players. The Mata thing was an exception rather the norm. It's understandable to be a bit cynical due to that, but it's being overstated imo.
Personally, and I kid you not when I say this, but I am still scarred by the kluivert saga all those years ago when he was 100% certain to sign for us - to this day the missus still gives me abuse over that story everytime a fcuking transfer window opens
On a more recent story I think the one that scarred me most was the schwarzer bid a couple of years ago - how embarassing was it as an Arsenal supporter to watch your team make a derisory bid for the guy that was dismissed by fulham only then to see us go back in with the very same bid just a couple of months later ? For me it made us a laughing stock and it was even more annoying cos 99% of Gooners at that time were begging for a new keeper to oust below average al from number 1 choice but yet the most we could spring for was 250k ??? This, correct me if I'm wrong, was in the same summer that we gave out new deals to the worlds greatest danish striker, denilson and flaps to name but 3
Impressive memory recall there Augie. I too remember how excited I was about a potential Bergkamp-Kluivert all Dutch partnership. Ahh fuck it.
And yes, the Schwarzer debacle was deeply embarrassing.
Even more so considering that Mannone is apparently worth £2.8 m and has only played 30 odd games, whereas Schwarzer was an experienced International goalkeeper, who could have taught our rookies a thing or two.
Wenger needs to get any deals done in the next week or two before pre-season to avoid the same disastrous start as 2 years ago.
We've got a tough first month with the game against the Scummers and the 2 leg 'be all and end all, world will end if we don't win' Chumpions League qualifier. He's already hinted that Cazorla and Monreal will not be ready for the start of the season and he is bound to want to rotate the squad given that we've got 5 competitive games in 2 weeks at the start of the season. Wilshere will struggle to play all those games and King Abou won't be ready either so the midfield might be missing 3 players for the PL games, whilst Gibbs may have to play all of them.
We need those players brought in to play a full pre-season. What's the point of a mad supermarket trolley dash on 31 August when we could have dropped a few points already. Can we please not sleepwalk into this season and get the players signed before they travel to Asia
SteveO 35 wrote:Wenger needs to get any deals done in the next week or two before pre-season to avoid the same disastrous start as 2 years ago.
We've got a tough first month with the game against the Scummers and the 2 leg 'be all and end all, world will end if we don't win' Chumpions League qualifier. He's already hinted that Cazorla and Monreal will not be ready for the start of the season and he is bound to want to rotate the squad given that we've got 5 competitive games in 2 weeks at the start of the season. Wilshere will struggle to play all those games and King Abou won't be ready either so the midfield might be missing 3 players for the PL games, whilst Gibbs may have to play all of them.
We need those players brought in to play a full pre-season. What's the point of a mad supermarket trolley dash on 31 August when we could have dropped a few points already. Can we please not sleepwalk into this season and get the players signed before they travel to Asia
This is my fear too....
All I have heard on social media and to a lesser extent on here too is, "it's only June" or "Wait until July". That's all well and good if you have deals in place and they go through relatively easily. The trouble with us is that we don't get things done quickly, we fuck and fart arse about and end up missing out on our chosen target player/players.
Ans as SteveO has pointed out pre-season will soon be upon us, and all the trouble that can bring trying to integrate new players before the start of the new season.
I think most of us only log onto this thread to read the latest bullshit rumours and then have a laff at the varying responses to said bullshit rumours
augie wrote:I think most of us only log onto this thread to read the latest bullshit rumours and then have a laff at the varying responses to said bullshit rumours
Too right. I remember a few years ago when we used to take these threads seriously. Now, they're just an excuse to wind each other up and mess about. It's a bit like having a rubbish supply teacher in charge for the day. Things could be normal but we all know that nothing will ever come of it anyway.
augie wrote:I think most of us only log onto this thread to read the latest bullshit rumours and then have a laff at the varying responses to said bullshit rumours
Too right. I remember a few years ago when we used to take these threads seriously. Now, they're just an excuse to wind each other up and mess about. It's a bit like having a rubbish supply teacher in charge for the day. Things could be normal but we all know that nothing will ever come of it anyway.
A few years ago I would become obsessed every time a transfer window opened........I suppose back then I actually believed we had ambitions befitting a club of our size and stature
I am not going all philosophical now and claim that none of the rumours creep in on me but by and large apathy is the emotion that consumes me every time a new rumour surfaces. The two aspects that do wind me up though is (a) the various bullshit excuses for our lack of purchases and (b) bizarre suggestions from fans of players we should be buying -I can understand why some fans would clamour for rooney signing even though I wouldn't buy him but some of the average/shite that is suggested here should have the men in white coats working overtime I'm saying that and I know people out there would include my suggesting Darren bent as a potential purchase should see me locked up in the loony farm too
